To the Teeth - DiFranco, Ani (CD 1999)

to the teeth [1999] buried my hope that Ani DiFranco would play pure folk, which defined her earlier albums, for the vast majority of album again. However great diversity of her music and definite change in the themes of the songs implied higher meaning of Ani s creativity. Marriage and new band affected overall impression of the album. It seems like Ani is settled now and not angry anymore. Maybe though hopeless and very tired.

If that made little sense, a bit of background. Ani is the chick that started her own label Righteous Babe at the age of 19, released one album each year since 1990, constantly toured the country and sometimes played in Europe. Her early albums recorded in the name of independence were famous for deep lyrics and rough guitar that gave impression of the whole band backing her up. In her music Ani touched on every single topic that was essential to her in the 90s, which ranged from personal stories to political views to infamous fight against corporate machine. Turning point in her career was Living in Clip, album recorded during live performances, which is always recommended as the introduction to Ani. In 1998 she renewed her band and changed her style, which affected the recording in question.

1.to the teeth 2.soft shoulder 3.wish i may 4.freakshow 5.going once 6.hello Birmingham 7.back back back 8.swing 9.carry you around 10.cloud blood 11.the arrival s gate 12.providence 13.i know this bar

Title song to the teeth was directly inspired by Columbine tragedy. It sounds very actual in the light of the recent shootings in one of the Germany s Gymnasium. You can do a perfect study on left liberal through Ani s music. This song stands for gun control. It has totally fabulous lyrics. Probably everyone s favorite is, open fire on each weapons manufacturer while he s giving head to some republican senator , but I think that for overall idea the first part of the song, the part before rage, more of a what s wrong with the country part is stronger. confused liberty with weaponry and watch your kids act it out

Second political and my favorite song on the album is hello Birmingham. I don t really know if you can call it political, I know I can. It is about the murder of the doctor who performed abortions in Birmingham. a bullet ensuring the right to life Fighting pro-life with murder is just as absurd as fighting God s love with hate. [ God hates fags poster, anyone?]

Both songs are pretty much deceptively simple and absolutely beautiful in musical arrangements. The rest of the album is severely jazzed up. Together with soft shoulder these three are definitely my favorite songs based on music and messages they deliver. Soft shoulder is a bit troublesome because of the story it tells, but that trick works with most of the personal songs. And unless it s Tracy Chapman and I m totally depressed, I don t mind it.

The song that I totally love and sing every day to keep my sanity [my sanity, huh?] is freakshow. life in the circus ain t easy Heaven knows how many of us live in the circus and heaven knows how many of us can see our lives in this song. And in my humble opinion, the last song noteworthy should be swing, which combines various music styles and still everything comes to jazz and phenomenal lyrics. Phenomenal due to wording, not the unique meaning. Closer to the end goes break it down freestyle by Corey Parker.

On this album I enjoyed a few instrumental introductions to some songs. I think they were totally in style. I liked the overall sound and tendency for diversification. I don t necessary like the voice arrangements on cloud blood and I feel that providence would be a brilliant song had it been left raw and acoustic. I also find it rather tiring listening to the whole album at once because it feels a bit too heavy on the new sound, but hey, I like Ani s early stuff better and I m one of those fans who did not take the change for complicated style for good for better.